


Second Annual Friendship Picnic

by perniciousLizard



Series: Fired Up and Bone Weary [5]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, M/M, Post-Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-23 02:29:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6101779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perniciousLizard/pseuds/perniciousLizard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s time for Papyrus to throw his annual Friendship Picnic!  This year, he has no choice but to invite Grillby.  Alphys is just happy Undyne isn't going to try and host it this year.</p>
<p>This is loosely set in the Fired Up series, and can be read without reading the other parts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Annual Friendship Picnic

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for day twenty-two of a "change" themed 30 Day challenge. The whole challenge is [here](https://alloftheseprompts.wordpress.com/2015/12/30/30-day-challenge-writing-about-change/) and all the entries I've finished are [here](http://it-refused.tumblr.com/tagged/30-day-change).
> 
> **Write about an unwelcome change.**

Alphys was basking in the sun on a blanket, eyes closed and half-awake.  It was Papyrus’ second annual "Friends of the Great Papyrus BBQ" and it could not have been a more perfect day for it.  Undyne had decided to let Papyrus have the friend barbecue again this year and Alphys could not have been happier she had made that decision.  Papyrus was intense enough about the party that Undyne didn’t get bored, and Alphys didn’t have to worry.

The friend picnic had been Undyne’s idea, originally.  She found the grill, invited everyone, bought the fireworks, and gathered all the food herself.  Alphys remembered just mostly prepping the basement for when she was overwhelmed by the party and had to hide and recover for a while.  

She should have spent more time preparing for the inevitable explosion.

They had kept the fire off the house, thankfully.  The first thing Alphys had installed on their new house was an anti-fire system.  She'd thought she was going overboard with it, but it was cool enough so she built it anyway, and that was what saved their house.  So, uh, that was nice!  Their backyard had transformed into a smoking crater and the grill was gone.  Undyne said she “launched it into orbit,” and she still sometimes mentioned it, wondering how it was doing.  

As they stood in the remnants of their backyard, they remembered that they _still had guests coming_! The food was gone!  The house was covered in a slurry of ash and extinguishing foam!  Alphys panicked and hid in the basement.  

Papyrus had leapt at the opportunity to be the Picnic Hero and they called up everyone and changed the location.  

His food hadn’t been great, and his grill looked like he’d gotten it out of the dump and he (or actually Sans, now that Alphys thought about it) fixed it up so that it sort of worked.  But Sans made ‘dogs on some little mini-roller thing he had and everyone brought side dishes so no one went hungry and it had all the enthusiasm of an Undyne party without the deadly danger.  

So when Papyrus announced he was going to host it again, Alphys had been very quietly relieved.  Undyne wanted to give it another shot, but she hated letting down Papyrus when he was excited about something.  Eventually, it would occur to the two of them that they could _both_ host separate friend parties and Alphys would be fire-proofing the newly rebuilt yard, but for now she got to have a little break.

Alphys took another sip of her soda and sighed.  There were a few clouds, but if those turned into anything, so what?  She would get to leave early before she was overwhelmed by all the people.  She didn’t even mind how often the kids running around the yard jumped over her as they raced around.

 

–-

 

Papyrus couldn’t turn his back on the grill.  Not for a _second_.  Sans kept telling him to take a break and enjoy the party, but this problem was entirely his fault and Papyrus did not trust him.  

There had been no choice but to invite Sans’ boyfriend to his Friend BBQ.  Not inviting him would be like not inviting Alphys just because he was better friends with Undyne.  It went against the sacred rules of party hosting etiquette to only invite your friend and not their partner.   Papyrus was the best host anyone could ever ask for.  He had shown that last year and that was why Undyne had let him host the party again this year.  He could not let her down and betray everything a friend party stood for by not inviting Grillby!  

Even though what was happening right this moment was entirely predictable and he knew it would happen as soon as he mailed out the invitation!  

Grillby was just sitting in a lawn chair.  Nearby.  Barely a foot away.  Grillby had moved the chair from the other side of the lawn and set it there, deliberately.  Sans had told him that Grillby just liked the smoky smell of a grill and that it was a fire monster cultural thing, but Papyrus knew better.  

Grillby was _watching_ him.

Waiting.

It felt like sweat was somehow trickling down the back of Papyrus’ neck bone.  

“hey bro.  still stuck by the grill, huh.”  Sans opened up a bag of hot dog buns and dumped them on the upper rack.  

“SANS,” Papyrus whispered, loudly, “THIS IS ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT.  YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT HIM.”  

“who? asgore?  i think the king and tori are doing a pretty good job avoiding each other without us getting involved.”

“NO I DO NOT MEAN THE KING.”  

“gerson’s just talking to undyne.  i guess i can keep an eye on him if you think he’s going to cause trouble.”

“NO I DO NOT MEAN GERSON!!!”  

“uh,” he scanned the crowd.  "think you want someone else dealing with mettaton if he’s the problem.  though i _do_ have about a hundred robot jokes stored up for an emergency.“  

"SANS!  TAKE YOUR BOYFRIEND ON A TOUR OF THE HOUSE!  OR ANYWHERE OTHER THAN HERE!”

Sans gave him a skeptical look.  “grillbz’s bugging you?  but he’s just sitting there.”  

Grillby was watching Sans and Papyrus chat.  Sans winked at him and blew him a kiss.  Grillby nodded back, solemn.  

“i guess if he’s getting on your nerves you could give him a turn on the grill for a while.  that’d probably distract him.”

“ESCALATING THE PROBLEM IS NOT SOLVING IT, SANS!”

“ok. i dunno, paps.  you can’t handle the heat, maybe you should stay outta the kitchen.  or away from the grill, for a while.”

“I AM PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF HANDLING HEAT.  BECAUSE I DO NOT HAVE SKIN AND AM ALSO AN EXCELLENT COOK!”

“so you’re okay then.”

“NO!  THIS IS THE FAULT OF YOUR WEIRD TASTE IN BOYFRIENDS, SO IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!”

Sans shrugged and started taking buns off the grill with his bare bones.  “ok.”  He walked over to Grillby and said, “hey.  hot dog roller’s not lighting right.  think you can lend a hand?”  

Grillby nodded and stood up.  Papyrus could see now, clearly, the bag of hamburger patties and _my god_ , were those hamburger buns and condiments under the chair, too??

“or a foot or your head or whatever.  fire magic’s not my specialty like it is yours.”

“…you are flattering me so you can be lazy,” Grillby said.   He followed Sans over to his setup, anyway.  

Papyrus let out a relieved sigh and started carrying things from the grill to the table where food was being served.  Undyne was there, and she had a few things to say, but his back was only turned for two minutes, at _most_.

When he turned back, Grillby was at the grill.  Everyone was lining up for hamburgers.  

Papyrus spun around, looking for Sans.  He had been betrayed.  By his own brother!  His flesh and blood!  So to speak!  (Nyeh-heh-heh, he should call Sans that sometime soon.  It was an amusing jape and he knew Sans would get a chuckle out of it)

Sans was right at the other end of the food table, digging an enormous handful of chips out of a bowl and moving them to a plate pre-coated in dip.  

“SANS!”  Papyrus said.  "LOOK AT THAT!!“  He pointed at Grillby.

Sans glanced up, briefly.  "huh.”  

“WHY IS THE EXACT THING I DID NOT WANT TO HAPPEN, HAPPENING?”

“i dunno.”  He looked back over at the crowd by the grill.  "i think tori looks nice in that muu muu and it’s not really your business what she wears anyway.“

"AND WHY ARE YOU BEING DELIBERATELY ANNOYING AND OBTUSE AT MY FRIEND PICNIC, FOR CELEBRATING FRIENDSHIP???”

“yeah i guess ‘acute’ would fit the friend theme better, but i’m not sure it’s me.  i just don’t see what the big deal is, bro.  look at how happy grillbz is.”  

“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING!”  Papyrus stomped off, bones practically rattling.  

Undyne tracked him down, after a few minutes, and cheered him up a little. She convinced him to think of it as a grilling competition, and that Papyrus would win.

He went back to chase Grillby away, but the fire monster was already back in his chair, like nothing had happened.  Papyrus glared at him until Grillby looked away, maybe a _little_ bit ashamed, and Papyrus went back to practicing the delicate art of grilling pasta on an open flame.  

 

–-

 

Grillby did feel a little bit guilty.  There was no escaping how rude it was to usurp the host and cook for them against their will.  But he couldn’t sit idly by and just _watch_ someone grill in such an amateurish fashion.  It had burned at him until he acted maybe a little rude.  

The sky was clouding up and he gave up his chair to go sit under one of the umbrellas set up around the yard.  Alphys was there with one of his hamburgers on a plate on her chest.  She wasn’t bothering with an umbrella, and she only looked half-conscious.  

Grillby knew her mostly as Undyne’s girlfriend and the person who created the amalgamates, so he had no idea if he should say hello or leave it be.

She opened her eyes, squinting in the sun, and fumbled for her glasses. “Oh!  Uh, hi!  I th-thought it got a little warmer.”  

“…sorry.”

“No! That’s…that’s not what I m-meant at all.  I’m sorry.  It’s completely fine.  Sorry.”  

“…”

“…great p-picnic, huh?  Oh, god, never mind…” she trailed off and pulled the plate over her face.  

“…yes.”  He looked out over the yard.  "…but I think it is going to rain.“  

"That w-would be a shame,” she said.  "I mean, for you, especially, but…for everyone else…too…“  She took the plate off her face and set it on the blanket next to her.  She looked guilty, but he was most likely just misreading her anxiety.

He spotted Sans carrying a plate entirely covered in chips and heading towards them.  He must have taken half the bowl.  

"bro’s got a bone to pick with you.”  

Grillby nodded.  The guilt was still there, but he would do it again.

Sans sat down next to him under the umbrella.  "hey, alphys.“

"Hi, Sans.  Uh…are you…h-having a good time?  

"yeah.”

Grillby leaned against Sans and said, quietly, “I think I will have to leave very soon.”  

“gettin kind of dark.  nah, stick around.  go inside and watch tv.  i think uh, napstablook, that ghost, they’re inside already.”  

“Oh!  You’re going to watch television?  I have some DVDs in the trunk of my car!”  Alphys looked suddenly more alert than she had all day.  

Something hit the umbrella, and Grillby winced.  It hadn’t been rain – the wind had picked up and was blowing small debris around – but Grillby was completely done.

“I’m going inside,” he said.  He didn’t wait around to hear Sans' opinion on that.  

Alphys also hurried off, towards her car.

Sans normally loved the unpredictability of surface weather, but it was sort of getting on his nerves, today.  Monsters and humans were running around trying to get the food covered, one of his chips blew straight off his plate and onto the ground, and his date was hiding inside for the rest of the day.  

Mettaton was over by the grill, egging Papyrus on with stuff like _the show must go on!_  Undyne was there, too, also not helping.   _Our friendship picnic was not going to be defeated by a few piddling raindrops!_

Sans hoisted himself up and went inside to find the space heater so they could dry out Papyrus later.  He probably wouldn’t take to the suggestion that they let Grillby help him, after the whole hilarious-to-Sans grill dominance war.  

Alphys and Grillby were in the living room, listening to Napstablook play some music on their phone.  

“hey, if you came in here to avoid people, there’s going to be a crowd in a couple minutes,” Sans said.

“Oh.  Oh no…” Napstablook said, fading out.  "…but…I was having such a nice time…"  

"Oh my god,” Alphys said.  "Do you even think everyone can fit in here?  Uh, Grillby…I’ll just l-leave the anime here and you can, um, give it to Sans to give to Papyrus to give to Undyne to give back to me.  Okay?  I have to go.“

He nodded.  

"don’t know if undyne’s ready to head out,” Sans said.  

“I’ll just…sit in my car then, I guess, like a loser!”  She rushed off outside.  

Thunder rattled the windows, and the door flew open and people started running in.  Napstablook disappeared completely.

Sans put on Alphys’ anime and he and Grillby sat on the couch and watched it, waiting out the rain.

**Author's Note:**

> Undyne's grill watches benevolently over the picnic from space.


End file.
